United Way of Delhi along with GE Volunteers launches Citizen Centric initiative
United Way of Delhi (UWD) has initiated a unique initiative with volunteers of GE Capital focused on helping Delhi Police Personnel communicate and interact better with citizens. The ‘Citizen Centric’ initiative was launched on 10th March, 2012 at Police Training Center located in New Rajendra Nagar Police Station, New Delhi in the august presence of Police Commissioner of Delhi, Mr BK Gupta, UWD chairman, Mr Siraj Chaudhary and Head of GE Volunteering Cell, Mr Sanjiv Jain.

Under the initiative, GE volunteers along with UWD would hold a six hour weekly training program for a group of 30 police personnel every Saturday starting 10th March, 2012 for a period of 11 weeks in areas such as verbal and non-verbal communications, use of body language and using tone and body language to build trust. The objective being to help Delhi Police to up-skill their field forces in areas such as communication, stress management and empathetic customer behavior.

Speaking on the launch function, Mr BK Gupta, Commissioner of Delhi Police averred, “Each interaction with citizens is an opportunity for us to make them feel secure and generate trust and confidence in our capabilities. This is really the crux of our citizen centric initiatives. I am glad that United Way of Delhi and GE Volunteers are supporting our efforts”.

Mr Siraj Chaudhary while thanking Delhi Police Commissioner for associating with the initiative said, “United Way Delhi collaborates with stakeholders including government agencies, NGOs and the corporate sector to bring significant positive changes in the community. This initiative is yet another such effort. Delhi Police has earned respect from the citizens for the great work that they do every day. This effort to become more citizen centric along with GE and United Way of Delhi is laudable”.

Spokesperson from GE Capital, Mr Sanjeev Jain while commenting on the initiative said, “Citizens as Stakeholders in Policing is a unique initiative by GE Volunteers and United Way of Delhi. GE volunteers had successfully conducted a similar initiative with the Cyberabad police last year and feel honored to now extend the training modules to the Delhi Police in partnership with United Way of Delhi. We look forward to getting the opportunity to share some of our learnings from the corporate world with the Delhi Police team and also learn from their experiences”.

The pilot program aims to train 330 police personnel of Delhi Police in areas such as listening skills, role of body language in conveying customer centric behavior, questioning in a non-threatening manner.

The program is first in series of volunteering engagements that UWD plans to initiate with other corporates/ institutions encouraging them to make a positive difference in their community through meaningful volunteering. The idea is to identify skilled volunteers and match their skills with a community or an organization that would fully utilize their skills making the entire exercise a mutually rewarding experience for both the volunteers and the targeted beneficiaries.